Tag Archives: World Cup

I don’t need to mention there’s an important semi-final tonight, do I? Most of the media build-up is drawing parallels with Italia ’90, for understandable reasons, yet for someone of my generation (I was born in 1959) 1966 is still … Continue reading →

[*Blogpost title with apologies to Peter Handke.] Neymar aside, it’s very hard to work up much enthusiasm for the Brazilian XI in the World Cup. The general lack of confidence and guile on display almost reminds me of England. How about … Continue reading →

In today’s Sunday Times [£], my list of 20 essential Brazilian songs, from João Gilberto to Carlinhos Brown, Maria Bethânia to Tom Zé. I’d assumed there’d be a feast of the country’s music on TV during the World Cup, but … Continue reading →

Perhaps he’ll prove everyone wrong before the end of the World Cup, but at the moment, the prodigy is beginning to look like just another player. Rob Smyth ponders a career that seems t0 have lost its way. If you said, … Continue reading →

He was a contemporary of Raheem Sterling. Then he got injured. Now he’s at Cambridge. The story of a player whose career was over at the age of 16: [U]nable to play football, he decided to concentrate on his studies. … Continue reading →

I can just about remember watching the 1966 World Cup Final, but Mexico 1970 was the first tournament I followed all the way through. Lots of late nights, lots of fish and chips as my brother and I watched matches on our … Continue reading →